There Are No Magic Bullets That Change A Parish

Have you ever entered a half-empty Catholic Church, before Mass starts, and yet struggled to find an easily-accessed seat? It is a common phenomenon, because most Catholics sit at the end of pews. Whether it is intended or not, this behavior communicates to others who come looking for a seat, "you are not welcome in this pew." This is a common mark of Catholic parish culture. Other things we all understand, though rarely discuss openly, include:

The lack of hospitality at most parishes. If you can go to Mass for months and have nobody ever greet you, outside of handing you a bulletin or giving the sign of peace, this is a lack of hospitality. If you call the church office and get more barriers than help, this is a lack of hospitality.

The lack of community. All of us have a need to belong to something greater than ourselves and have good relationships. The sad thing is - many folks aren't getting community from our parishes. They may find they belong at gyms or other groups in the community, but not so much in our churches.

The lack of mission. We are not supposed to be in the business of perpetuating our programs, merely putting on events, or paying the bills. But, that is how we generally operate. There is no urgency in our mission. There is no vision to how we operate. We have missed out on the core of what makes us Christians - in the way our parishes operate.

This culture in our parishes, will only change with consistent, persistant, and directed implementation of a proper vision. A vision that is mission-minded, directed at personal relationships, and goes beyond mere preservation of our structures and processes. There are no magic bullets that will save a parish, renew it, or make it grow quickly. Rather, there is only hard work, patience, and a return to the roots that will work.

BACK TO THE ROOTS! If you look at the model of Jesus, he followed the discipleship model of his time, in forming his disciples. In fact, it was common for Jews of his time to be discipled by a Rabbi. That is, they lived life with him, to be formed into a believer who could shape others into believer and pass it down to others. This lifestyle of discipleship was the model Jesus used to train his followers.

At the beginning of his ministry, he promised to make them into "fishers of men" if they followed him. Once he did that, he sent them out to do the same with others, when he commanded them to "go and make disciples of all nations". These are the missional bookends of how God wants his Church to operate - to be evangelists and missionary disciples.

PARISHES ON MISSION In the United States, the Catholic Church was formed around local parishes, where most people gathered as communities (mostly around a certain culture) in order to be Sacramentalized and taught how to follow God. This Catholic culture crumbled, when the things that seperated us from the rest of our county went away. Once Catholics were accepted as just another kind of American and started to live like everyone else, we lost what set us apart. The parish no longer became the center of life for us as families or individuals. Being Catholic wasn't distinctive. After this culture was lost, we didnt change how we operated. In other words, we are still operating as if a non-existent Catholic culture can still evangelize us, without having the culture to do it. Thus, we have so many unevangelized Catholics, little community, little hospitality, etc.

In response, we need to change again.

It is my belief that only a return to radical mission - to evangelization as a lifestyle and discipleship (intentionally lived out mission, which pours life into a small number of others) will really change things. This is what Jesus did. This is what he told his disciples to do. This is how the early Church changed the world in just a few generations.

Now it is our turn. Will we watch the Church in the USA continue to consolidate parishes, crumble beneath our watch, or will we wake up to the reality that God has already given us the model - we just have to adapt our lives to it?